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Posts tagged ‘soft answer’

My life may not make sense to someone on the outside looking in. I pray, I go to church, but I also actively recognize my need for Jesus. I am broken. I need mending. I need grace and mercy. In order for me to have grace and mercy, I have to give that to others. That is where the problem lies!

My human flesh doesn’t always want to turn the other cheek. My first instinct is often to lash out and give that person a piece of my mind. Afterwards, something in my head says, “You did good. You told them the truth.” That might be true, but I didn’t do it love. I did it out of anger and frustration. I projected my feelings on to the other person. In other words, I vomited hate and anger all over the place!

I am continually needing God’s grace to let go. I can’t control other people, BUT I can control my reactions to situations. I am responsible for the words I say whether I like it or not. Have I been sowing seeds of love lately? Not always.

I was listening to Charles Capps the other day and he said something that struck me: “When you sow seeds of faith it produces faith, but if you sow seeds of strife it produces strife.” It sounds simple, right? It hit me that the negative words I had spoken produced strife. I had never thought about that! I don’t want to produce strife in my life OR someone else’s.

My mom’s actions early in life hurt her witness. She said whatever she felt like saying. When Mama wanted to talk to old friends about Jesus, they didn’t want to listen because of her attitude towards them before she found Jesus. When you do things God’s way, your light grows brighter.

A soft answer turns away wrath. That’s what the Bible says we are to do, even when we know a person is doing wrong AND they know.

As Christians, we are held to a higher standard. Jesus expects us NOT to respond to situations the way the world would. This week a friend said that God gives us grace to walk in patience and love with people that we don’t have patience for. With Him, all things are possible…even the hard things.